5 killed, 41 injured in ST bus-truck crash on Nashik highway (Lead)

At least 5 persons were killed and 41 others injured, including 9 critically, when a state transport bus they were travelling in crashed into a truck on the Mumbai-Agra Highway in Maharashtra’s Nashik on Tuesday, officials said.

Among the victims are 2 senior citizens, a 14-year-old boy, and two men, including the bus conductor, who were killed instantly in the accident that occurred on the outskirts of Chandwad town around 9.45 a.m.

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus was en route from Bhusawal in Jalgaon district to Nashik town and the crash is said to have occurred when it tried to overtake a goods truck on the highway.

So severe was the crash that more than half of the left front portion of the ST bus was crushed and ripped apart by the impact, trapping many of the victims sitting there, Police Inspector Kailas Wagh of Chandwad Police Station, told IANS.

The local police and fire brigade were summoned for help and rushed the injured passengers to the Chandwad government hospital and other private hospitals, where the condition of 9 victims was described as “serious”.

Wagh said that the victims are identified as Khaleda Ghulam Hussain, 60, of Bhiwandi town in Thane, Baderam Sonu Ahire, 64, from Nashik, Suresh Tukaram Sawant, 28, and Sahil Sanjay Devre, 14, both of Jalgaon.

An MSRTC spokesperson said in Mumbai that the company extended an immediate ex gratia payment of Rs 15,000 to 17 of the injured passengers.

The accident led to a massive traffic snarl in the morning peak hours on the busy national highway, which was cleared after shifting aside the two badly damaged vehicles in a couple of hours, said Wagh.